Migraine and fatigue: tracking the tiredness
Migraine is more than the headache hours. Many people feel drained, foggy and heavy-limbed in the day before an attack, and wrung out for a day or more afterwards. Logging fatigue won't restore your energy, but a dated record of when tiredness appears relative to your attacks helps show the full arc of a migraine — the part that's easy to dismiss as 'just being tired'.
Why fatigue surrounds a migraine
A migraine attack has phases beyond the headache. The American Migraine Foundation describes a premonitory (prodrome) phase in the hours or day before, when many people notice fatigue, yawning, mood changes and food cravings, and a postdrome or 'migraine hangover' afterwards marked by tiredness and difficulty concentrating. The Migraine Trust likewise lists tiredness among the symptoms of these surrounding stages. So fatigue isn't separate from your migraine — for many people it's part of how an attack begins and ends.
What logging fatigue's timing reveals
A daily 0–3 energy log placed next to your attacks can show whether tiredness clusters in the premonitory hours, the recovery phase, or both. Many people find fatigue and yawning are among the earliest changes they notice before an attack — recording that helps you describe your own pattern to a clinician. To be clear, that's an observation about your history, not a prediction: Temple logs what happens, it doesn't forecast attacks.
What's worth recording
A daily 0–3 for energy, ideally with a rough note on how you slept, is enough to reveal the shape of things over weeks. Don't chase precision — the run of dates is what turns 'I'm always exhausted around my migraines' into a visible pattern a clinician can reason about, and what shows how fatigue travels with your other symptoms.
Temple logs daily energy in one tap beside sleep and your attacks, so premonitory and recovery-phase tiredness show up clearly in your appointment record.
Common questions
- Is feeling exhausted before or after a migraine normal?
- Yes. Fatigue is a recognised feature of the premonitory phase before an attack and the postdrome 'hangover' afterwards. Logging when your tiredness appears helps you and a clinician see how it fits your attacks, rather than treating it as unrelated.
- Does tracking fatigue mean the app can predict my migraines?
- No. Temple is a diary, not a prediction tool. Noticing that fatigue often precedes your attacks is a pattern in your own history that you may find useful — the app records it, it does not forecast or warn of an attack.